Living on Hope
by Poppy the Rabbit
Summary: Zutara week 2014! AU- My life has been filled with nothing but work. If you don't, the Fire Nation will kill you. They try to break your spirit, but they will never break mine. I have something that nobody can take from me: hope. Hope that the Avatar will come back to save the world.


**This is for Zutara week! I'm not sure if this will make it through as a full-fledged fic, so it'll depend on the feedback. I love Zutara (Though not as much as Taang) and I felt like I needed to give this couple the recognition it deserved. This is in an AU where Katara gets discovered as the last Waterbender in the Southern Water Tribe. Aang isn't frozen in an iceberg, but he will be discovered later... If I decide to continue this. There is no Zuko in this chapter, only Katara. It's being read from Katara's POV. Most of the fic will be in Katara's POV. **

**Disclaimer: Why would I be on a fanfiction website writing fanfiction if I owned it? **

**_~*~*Zutara*~*~_**

Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony... It's kind of hard to believe, isn't it? The Fire Nation's Fire Lord suddenly declared war on the world and took all of us by suprise.

The Water Tribe was invaded by the Fire Nation on the day that celebrated my mother's birthday. I remembered that I was heading over to our tent with the present I made for her: a Turtle Seal bone necklace that I had spent months carving to get exactly right. The bone was carved in the shape of a crescent moon and a pale blue ribbon was threaded through it. I knew that she was going to love it. She was probably going to take off her usual necklace and wear mine, if not just once. I only needed to see it hang around her neck once, then I would be appeased. I cradled the necklace in my gloved hands gently, like it was a precious Otter Penguin egg.

While I was walking, I noticed that it started to snow a black color. I had a horrible feeling about what was going to happen. It NEVER snowed black! I heard the battle cries of men and the terrified screams of the women. Women were evacuating their homes as the burnt to the ground around them in a flourish of dancing flames. My heart shattered. How could this happen?

Then I heard a scream that would haunt me forever. I looked around for confirmation that the person screaming wasn't my mom. I felt a growing uneasiness in my stomach.

"Katara!" A strong, familiar voice yelled and I turned to see my dad. My dad was tall and dark skinned like the rest of the village with shaggy brown hair and kind blue eyes. I ran to him, almost tripping in my hurry. I flung myself onto him, just relieved that he was alright. I would've told him what a relief it was to see him unharmed, but I found that I was too shocked to speak.

My brother, Sokka, came out from behind him and pulled me off of Dad. He firmly planted two hands on my shoulders. "Katara, where's Mom?" He asked, putting on his best attempt at being calm for my sake. I appreciated the gesture. I looked down at my hand, where I was clutching the necklace tightly.

"I don't know." I choked out.

"Sokka, stay with your sister! I'm going to find Kya." He demanded.

As he tried to walk away, a Firebender shot fire at his feet. A warning shot. My dad snarled and lunged at the man.

He wasn't going to find Mom in time with all of these Firebenders distracting him. I shrugged Sokka's hands off of my shoulders and sprinted in the direction of Mom's tent.

"KATARA! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! YOU'RE GOING TO GET YOURSELF _KILLED_!" Sokka screamed.

I didn't care what he had to say. I needed to find Mom. I needed her to be alright. Adrenaline pumped through my body and ice cold air burned my throat. None of it mattered. SHE mattered!

I saw the destinated tent and ran even faster. I wheezed for oxygen and yanked the tent flap open. When I saw my mother sitting calmly in the tent, I could've fainted from relief. "Mom!" I cried. Then I realized that my mom shouldn't be sitting so calmly in her tent while this whole fiasco was going on.

Then I realized that what I thought was a shadow in the corners was a Fire Nation General. His red armor clanked loudly as he turned to face me with an irritated frown. Panic set in again. What were they doing? What did he want from her? "Your mom and I were just having a nice little chat." He told me with a sickening grin that showed me just how much joy he gained out of my terrified expression. His grin melted into a scowl as he continued. "Get out of here, little girl."

I glanced back at my mom. "Mommy..." I whimpered. I couldn't stop the tears that ran down my face. I wanted to run and hug her, but I knew that he would hurt one of us.

Mother gave me a reassuring smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Katara, go." She pleaded. "I'll be fine." She softly told me, although we both knew that that was a lie. I felt numb. No. I couldn't lose her. The tears on my face started to stop running down my face. They started to freeze into little snow crystals.

I took one last glance at the man and my mother before running out of the tent. As soon as I was a decent distance from the accursed tent, I collapsed into the snow and ash. I looked down at the necklace I had made for her and tucked it away in my blue parka's pocket.

I tried to dig myself a snow cave beneath the snow to hide in until it was over, but I stopped digging when I heard the awful man's voice shout, "She wasn't the one, boys! We still have a Waterbender among us!" He shouted. "There's a little girl who cried ice crystals! She was about five years old and is named Katara, according to her mother! SHE must be the one!"

I gasped. They were looking for a Waterbender. How could I be so stupid as to let my emotions give me away? I gave up my snow cave idea and tried to run back to Sokka.

"Halt!" I heard someone shout behind me. I ran even faster when I heard many footsteps behind me.

I saw my brother's familiar ponytail, which he insisted was a wolf's tail, and yelled, "SOKKA!"

Sokka turned at his name and sprinted to me once he realized who it was. "Katara!" He yelled. "Where's Mom?" He noticed the Firebender chasing after me and tried to scoop me up in his arms and run away.

Unfortunately, a nearby Firebender sealed off our escape options by surrounding us in a wall of fire. When the fire died out, it revealed that we were completely surrounded by Fire Nation creeps. Sokka put me back on the ground and took out the boomerang that Dad had given him for his fifth birthday. Sokka waved it around threateningly, but one man just laughed. Sokka, forgetting our situation, huffed and threw our only weapon at a guy who simply ducked out of the way. If this was any other time, I would've scolded my brother's stupidity, but I was paralyzed with horror.

A few of the men chuckled. One guy seized me by my hair and tried to drag me through the crowd of men. I was crying harder now. They were going to kill me like they killed Mom. Yes, I knew that she was dead. Nobody lies to the Fire Nation and lives.

I frantically tried to pull away from the man and reached for Sokka, who was running foward to grab me. Then I heard the sound of swishing metal and my brother crumpled to the ground. Behind him was the boomerang that he had thrown.

"Katara!" My dad yelled from somewhere in the crowd.

"DADDY! Help me, _PLEASE_!" I begged.

The man pulling my braid decided to give my hair a break and decided to pull me roughly by my upper arm. As I kept trying to pull away, I started to feel a warm sensation where the man was holding me. I started to smell smoke and my arm began to burn horribly. I screamed in agony. It hurt so badly and it was scorching my parka.

"Stop wiggling, you brat!" He yelled and the burning got worse.

I was hoping that my dad was going to rush over and save the day, but he didn't. Nobody tried to save me. Nobody except Sokka, who was regaining consciousness.

The soldier led me back to the ship, still slowly burning my arm. I finally just gave up the fight and let the man pull me. The guy smirked and quickened his pace towards the ship. I turned my head to see Daddy looking at me with such sadness. I look up at the man. "If I promise to go come with you with no complaints, can I just say goodbye to my family?" I pleaded. "I could stand at the top of the stairs and say goodbye. Please?"

The guy seemed to think it over before nodding. "Sure."

I slipped a few times when I was walking up the iron steps and turned to face my village and family. Daddy walked as close as he dared to the ship with my brother.

I saw something that I've never seen before: Dad was crying. So was Sokka, but Sokka was always a crybaby. He gave me a pathetic look that said that he wasn't ever going to be the same after this experience. None of use were. "You look just like Kya, Katara." He said, voice shaking. His eyes were focused intently on me, trying to memorize every detail of my appearance. "And I've lost both of you today. I would try to save you, Tara, but they might cause more damage to the village... Or kill you."

Sokka was bolder than my dad. He ran up the steps and grabbed me into a hug. I think the sadistic Fire Nation soldier allowed it because my brother didn't have the slightest chance of getting me back by himself. But my dad wasn't going to be able to hug me good bye. Gran Gran was terrified of the Fire Nation ever since the last raid, but she slowly made her way up the steps and kissed my forehead. She whispered in my ear that hope was not lost yet.

Really? It sure felt like it. Although I managed to figure out that they weren't going to kill me, I didn't think that I should be _HAPPY_ that they killed my mom and GENEROUSLY decided not to kill me afterwards. Oh, Spirits, you are _TOO_ kind, General Stupid. Okay, I'm horrible at nicknames, I admit it. But he was stupid for ever killing my mother. She was a sweet, kind, AMAZING woman! And I'll never get to hear her voice or see her again.

She grabs me into a big hug. "The Avatar..." She mumbles into my ear. The hug was obviously a cover for the whispering, but I never realized that I would miss the way Gran Gran smelled of newly published scrolls. I loved that smell. "He can deliver us all. Find the Avatar and he will save the world from this horrible war." Then I felt That Gran Gran's face was wet. She was crying. The Avatar... She couldn't mean the master of all four elements, did she? How could I find the Avatar?

"That's enough crying and blubbering!" The Fire Nation soldier snapped before telling Sokka and Gran Gran to get off of the stairs. I tried to stand on the tips of my toes to take in the last glimpse of my old home.

It was something that I wished that I didn't see. The village was burned down and people were limping and burned. It was not the village I grew up in. The village I grew up in was always full of life, even when we were on our darkest days. The village I grew up in didn't have a gray mixture of snow and ash spread across the snow covered tundra. Most of all, the village I grew up in had my MOM in it!

The man led me down a series of hallways that twisted and turned. Wow. I didn't think that the Fire Nation would build ships big enough to build labrynths in. I rubbed my hand over the carven necklace and tried to calm down as much as possible. An anxiety attack would only make things worse. Rubbing the necklace only made me feel slightly better, but now I wish that it was Mother's necklace.

The man opened a door to where half of the room was encased in metal bars. He was locking me in a cage like a Hog Monkey. He opened the cell door and pushed me in it. Just before the Fire Nation man left, the General stepped in and told him, "She's a novice. You can give her small amounts of water and she wouldn't be able to do anything with it. Even if she was a skilled bender, how could she cut through these thick iron bars with barely a mouthful of water?"

The man nodded and left to obey his orders. The General turned his icy gaze onto me. I squirmed under his gaze and he chuckled. "Pathetic." As he turned to leave he tossed something to the ground and crushed whatever it was beneath his foot. He threw me a triumphant smile over his shoulder. "_Just. Like. Your. Mother."_

When he left, I scurried over to examine what he had crushed.

... It _COULDN'T_ be! That stone, that symbol... My heart nearly stopped. It _WAS_! This jerk had crushed my mother's betrothal necklace.

I took off my gloves and scooped up the biggest pieces of the necklace, stuffing them into one of them. I cradled the glove gently in my arms and I crawled into the fatal position. Five years old and my life was already ruined by the Fire Nation...

**_~*~*Zutara*~*~_**

**How was it? Good or bad? Do you think I should continue it? Yes, Toph will be in this fic. Sokka... Not so much. Think about it: she was taken from her old life and was forced into a new one all by herself. Do you REALLY think that Sokka would be able to leave the South Pole without Appa? And would he be able to pinpoint where she is?**


End file.
